For Oct. 12th
One of the most significant passages from the second half of the reading occured when Ron and his fellow protestors went to the Republican National Convention to demonstrate against the Vietnam War. Ron had earlier given a tell-all interview to reporter Roger Mudd calling upon the American public to recognize the plight of the veterans. He continues his angry demonstration peacefully, but is met with a brash verbal attack. The text states, “A man came up suddenly from my blind side. Before I knew what hit me he had grabbed my sign and torn it into shreds in front of me. ‘You lousy commie sonofabitch!’ he shouted” (191). The lack of respect for a veteran, a disabled veteran especially, is almost unbelievable. I cannot imagine approaching someone who is disabled and confronting them in such a hateful manner. This puts in perspective the hysteria and tension in the United States during a time in which many, including myself were not alive. The man who approached Ron’s use of ‘commie’ brings forth the idea Ron, and the other protestors, were enemies of the US just for acting upon their constitutional right to freedom of speech and demonstration. I can almost imagine the fear and shock of Ron when the man at the convention tore his sign into pieces. Ron was met with such hate when trying to bring awareness to the destruction of the catastrophic war, a war to which he lost his mobility, freedom, and identity. For Ron to have lost and sacrificed so much, only to be met with complete disdain, is sickening.
“More and more he thought about what a priest had said to him in Da Nang: ‘Your fight is just beginning. Sometimes no one will want to hear what you’re going through. You are going to have to learn to carry a great burden and most of your learning will be done alone. Don’t feel frightened when they leave you. I’m sure you will come through it all okay’” (Kovic, 47).
ReplyDeleteThis quote at the beginning of Born of the Fourth of July encapsulates the struggle (both physical and psychological) that Kovic faces after returning from Vietnam disabled. Kovic is isolated from the American public, who do not share his phycological trauma of killing the Corporal from Georgia and the Vietnamese children. He is continually haunted by these events as they follow him through his life. Also, he is isolated from others by his injury. Being paralyzed brought psychological trauma to Kovic, who resented the things he could no longer do, especially being able to participate in sexual activities. Kovic represents the psychological damage constructed by his physical injury, “He would never have come back from any other war. But now here he was. He was back and dead and breathing” (Kovic, 177). Kovic’s situation of being “dead and breathing” is echoed by the increasing number of wounded veterans who returned from Vietnam because of technological advancements. This left many veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, an invisible injury that veterans brought home with them. The isolation that these veterans felt created a deep chasm between the society and returning soldiers. As a result, veterans, such as Kovic, felt betrayed by their government, who sent them to Vietnam and provided the pathway for their injuries. In Kovic’s motivation to protest the war, he eventually finds disabled veterans, who he can relate with and feel accepted. Kovic’s fight did not end in Vietnam. Kovic fought his disability, his isolation, and his government’s betrayal. In the end, finding the people who he could relate to and protesting Nixon and the Republican National Convention gave meaning to the burden that Kovic carried.
Throughout Born on the Fourth of July, Ron Kovic really talks about the embodiment of soldiers and specifically life and death. Whilst Kovic is in the war, his focus is on staying alive and not being like the “dead losers.” Even after Kovic kills the Corporal and the children, he still just wants to go home a hero. He stays in this state of mind until he actually goes home; this is when what has happened to him starts to catch up with him and he begins to view himself as a dead man. As Kovic explains, many parts of him died in the war. First is his innocence, which he lost with the killing of the Corporal and the children. Kovic feels an immense guilt for this and cannot excuse his actions even though he knows this was a mistake. He says he feels like his paralyzation was recompense for the innocent lives that he killed. Furthermore, Kovic also experiences the “death” of most of his body. He went into Vietnam to be like the Marines he idolized and build himself into a man, but instead he will never get to live his life like other adult men; Kovic will never get to be with a woman or be free like he saw everyone else was at protests. Lastly, Kovic’s faith in his country died with the war. Growing up he was a patriot, but after he witnesses the disregard for veterans in the VA hospitals and all the money shoved into the war by Nixon while he ignores the plights of veterans, Kovic adamantly voices his opposition to the war. Overall, even if unlike many Kovic did not die in Vietnam, he still kind of views it like he did, and his metaphorical death is what brings him to his need for outspoken opposition to the war and to be a “traitor” to his country.
ReplyDeleteUp to this point in our class we talked about many different topics like race, the military industrial complex, the all-voluntary force, etc. Now we are getting to use these topics to describe an area of Western Pennsylvania. The area that we are in is rich in a lot of these topics. The Pittsburgh area was once the center of the industrial complex. The three rivers of the Ohio, Allegheny, and Monongahela were the reasons why we were the center. We used them to create, cool, and transport steel. Many of these historic steel mills still exist a long the rivers. From the Civil War till World War II, Pittsburgh was the center for everything. The train tracks during the civil war was key to transporting many things to supply the Union. From the two World Wars, Pittsburgh was relied on creating most of the bodies for tanks and ammunitions for us. Due to all the steel making we were one of the most unlivable cities because of all the smog that covered the area. During the mid-1900s race played a big part for us. Most of the hard working and low paying jobs was obtained by African-Americans and most of the poorer neighborhoods in Pittsburgh was occupied by African-Americans. A lot of these issues of this time can be seen in the film “Fences.” Pittsburgh has a lot of history to talk about and it should be fun to see the map we create for our final project.
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